What is Bill Bolling up to?

11/28/12 3:24 PM EST

The Virginia lieutenant governor, who ended his bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination today, tells the Roanoke Times he's not prepared to rule out a campaign as an independent:

“This is going to be an interesting campaign,” Bolling said, sizing up a potential race between Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe. “I think one of the big questions is: How do the people of Virginia react to these two candidates that the major political parties have produced? How does the business community react to these two candidates? I think there’s going to be a fair amount of uncertainty and uncomfortableness with these two candidates. So I jut don’t know how that might play out over the course of time.

“I don’t have any current intention of doing that, but I’m not going to rule anything out at this point. Right now my focus is on working with the governor to get ready for the 2013 session of the General Assembly, and then once we get the session behind us, we’ll take a look at the political landscape and see how things are coming together. You know, I’m always assessing political options.”

The Republican Governors Association and Gov. Bob McDonnell (who previously endorsed Bolling) have already swung behind Cuccinelli today, and for Bolling to strike out on his own would mean burning decades' worth of relationships in GOP politics. For that reason, Republicans in the state are highly skeptical that he would ever go through with an independent run.

At the same time, Bolling's also reached the end of the line in terms of offices available to him as a Republican, and there's no love lost between him and Cuccinelli. The Roanoke Times's Michael Sluss said Bolling ruled out seeking another term as lieutenant governor because — as Bolling explained — "I would not be interested in running on a statewide ticket with Mr. Cuccinelli."